China Promotes Environmentally-friendly Equipment Manufacturing

On October 24, 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (“MIIT”) published Guidelines on Accelerating and Promoting the Development of the Environmentally-friendly Equipment Manufacturing Industry (“Guidelines”), to support a continual and healthy development of China’s environmentally-friendly equipment manufacturing industry. The Guidelines set the output target of RMB 1 trillion for the industry by 2020, compared to the 2016 realized output value of RMB 620 billion. The Guidelines designate nine areas as development priorities:(1) air pollution control equipment; (2) water pollution control equipment; (3) soil pollution recovery equipment; (4) solid waste treatment and disposal equipment; (5) comprehensive utilization of resources; (6) environmental pollution emergency treatment equipment; (7) special equipment for environmental monitoring; (8) special materials and drugs for environmental pollution prevention and control; and (9) noise and vibration control equipment. As supporting measures, the Guidelines call for adequately utilizing various existing government grants, relevant preferential tax policy, and insurance compensation policy. The Guidelines also call for promoting various financial products, and increasing financial supports to the environmentally-friendly equipment manufacturing industry.